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Price war threat to UK gas supplies

Global demand is forcing LNG suppliers to divert tankers from Britain to countries happy to pay more, which will have knock-on effects on homeowners’ power costs, writes Iain Dey

March 9 2008, 12:00am, The Sunday Times

WHEN the Ramdane Abane set sail from the Algerian port of Arzew on February 5 with a £15m shipment of liquefied natural gas, the captain thought he was heading for Kent. The 300 metre-long tanker had been booked into the National Grid’s Isle of Grain terminal, where the cargo would be pumped into Britain’s gas network. But she did not get far into her four-day voyage before being forced into a three-point turn.

A message reached the bridge from Sonotrach, the Algerian gas producer that owned the cargo. Don’t go to Britain, it said, go to Turkey instead. Iran had cut off Turkey’s gas supplies and Turkey was now willing to pay twice the market rate. The customers in Britain would have to wait.